Blue Mountain Pottery, McMaster Craft & much more ~ A Mid Century Ceramic treasure trove.

Last year during the first lockdown window I bought a small collection of what I recognised from my childhood to be Blue Mountain Pottery and it’s provided a lovely virtual escape, like an actual holiday through the Canadian Rocky Mountains, in an otherwise bleak housebound period. 

BACKGROUND:

Very popular in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, Blue Mountain Pottery was a Canadian company in Ontario, and it’s popularity remains and continues to grow to this day with the resurgence of Mid Century style.

“Founded in 1953 by Dennis Tupy and Jozo Weider (b. 1908 in Zhilina Czechoslovakia) and closed in 2004, Blue Mountain Pottery items feature a unique, trademarked glazing process known as "reflowing decorating." Two different liquid glazes, one light and one dark in colour, were applied. During the firing process the glazes would run, creating streaking patterns unique to each piece. Blue Mountain Pottery items were available in the traditional green hues, but also in harvest gold, cobalt blue, mocha, pewter, red, and brown.” - Wikipedia 

THE HUNT:

Despite the profound but simple joy of just being out of the house, I’d had a really disappointing day treasure hunting, had been at it for hours, covered about 30 square miles and was completely tuffleless. All the fun for me is in the hunt, I love the people I meet and places I see, then of course the subsequent tale to tell, but I really, really, hate going home empty handed. Plus it was drizzling. 

I was dejected and hungry for food and nicknacks by the time I reached St Helens, (a small town nearish to Manchester in the north west of England for my international crew), and I had already had a consolatory chat with a mate who runs a charity shop, pitifully holding out my empty shopping bag like Oliver: “look, I’ve got nowt”. He couldn’t help, there wasn’t owt in the back neither. 

I had one last chance before going home defeated, a shop I never go into because 1. They only take cash, which I hadn’t seen since the pandemic started, 2. It was usually just large furniture and mattresses, 3. The door is hard to open (I know, don’t, I’m getting old).

However, I was desperate, not desperate enough to touch the COVID covered cashpoint buttons, but I ferreted around in my purse and found a twenty pound note which had been folded flat and forgotten about between my bank cards for months. It felt strange, like discovering an old family photo of yourself, in a party dress you can’t remember wearing, from a past life, as a child, in the pages of a dusty book. It wasn’t me though, it was the Queen. 

I elbowed open the door, cash clutched in my hand, I’m ready, I’ve been good, I’ve worn a mask, I’ve stayed in, I’ve protected the NHS, my fringe is drizzle frizzed, give it to me, you’re my last chance for happiness, give me my tiny pleasures please.... Oh! Behold! Every surface was a sea of ceramic creatures, it was an orchard of Blue Mountain Pottery ripe for the picking, a glazed Blue Mountain vintage village of little faces sitting there looking at me and I wanted my full twenty quids worth thank you madam. 

My energy level, and that of the shop, went from zero to frenzy in five beats of my racing heart. I piled them up and she wrapped them up.

Mid Century ceramic Blue Mountain Pottery Buffalo or Bison - legs intact.

Everything was in mint condition, I chose the 70’s buffalo/bison - legs and horns intact, the 60’s cat with a bow tie - ears unchipped, the 80’s cutie pie Inuit - no hole for a spear, the Native American figure in a canoe and, what I think is my favourite, the moth/butterfly dish. Joyous, it’s what live for.

Mid Century 1960’s scoop head Blue Mountain Pottery cat.

Blue Mountain Pottery Moth (or butterfly) dish - dazzling example of “reflowing” glaze.

I couldn’t wait to get it all home, unwrap it all and play with it. I must have clocked up hours of satisfaction from the bison’s legs not being broken and I’ve looked at that moth everyday with a nod and a wink since it landed.

TURN OF EVENTS:

I had no intention of selling them, they were keepers, however I decided I could live without and decided to list the two ‘human’ figures, but keep the ‘hanimals’ - just like in the rest of my life. 

Grand River Pottery or Huronia Inuit ‘dolly’.

McMaster Craft Native American figure in a Canoe.

I checked some comps on eBay and Etsy, did a little less research than I normally do (long COVID) and listed them on eBay with the hope they wouldn’t sell. Within minutes I received a very polite message from a very earnest chap from the Blue Mountain Pottery Club (there’s a club) who told me they were not Blue Mountain Pottery, but by another Canadian pottery McMaster Craft.

Mid Century McMaster Craft Native American in a Canoe figurine.

I love it when this happens, occasionally you get a random spiteful message trolling you for shoes, but it’s fantastic when someone who cares about something so much gets in touch and offers up valuable information for no other reason than to help. I thanked him very much, updated my listing and felt like joining the club. 

So far, I’m convinced my bison, cat and moth are BMP, my canoe is McMaster Craft, however I have just discovered that my standing “doll” figure may be by yet another Canadian pottery, contemporary with BMP, either Grand River Pottery or Huronia. As far as I understand it now, several potteries set up business in Canada, including another called Rocky Mountain Pottery, and often shared the moulds of the figurines, so without a stamp or label it’s extremely difficult to identify who made each item. 

Grand River Pottery or Huronia standing Inuit without a spear - waving.

Happily, my journey through mid century Canadian souvenir art continues. Who is my little cutie pie ceramic dolly and where did she come from? She’s still available for sale SHOP HERE, so who knows where she’s going, but in the meantime she’s mine.